Deprogramming The Culture

We of the Traditian Order see one of the primary missions of our Order as deprogramming the current culture of modernism and relativism. The modern popular culture, after all, has a belief system all its own, and it’s an odd one. The high priests in the media and universities dictate it, their obedient student radicals enforce it, and their adherents in the culture apply peer pressure to those who do not conform.

This system is obviously dysfunctional to the objective eye. That is, the modern popular culture de-emphasizes and slowly destroys those things that define and hold together a civilization: family, faith, tradition, even the idea of objective truth or the clear fact that fundamental differences exist between male and female. Its adherents, though, suspend their disbelief, discount the evidence against their assertions, and live with a level of cognitive dissonance that is unlike any before it in history. Where this all started is a different story, but the fact that we live in an odd time with unsupportable beliefs is plain.

Where a culture is self-destructive, when it creates a world for itself that rejects even simple principles of natural law, where it cannot even hold onto basic truth, it is better referred to in the shorter version of the word, a cult. And a cult sometimes requires deprogamming before the truth can be plainly seen again and embraced.

To deprogram it all, the first step is clear: Truth itself must be reclaimed. There is no truth for you, and truth for me and some third truth for him over there. There is one truth, it is universal and absolute. There can be no other way, because it is the truth.

Yes this means some people will be right and some people will be wrong, and some people will cry weepy tears. Yes it means some people will come in second, third or even last. Yes it is in fact intolerant, because being wrong hurts and allowing pain is intolerant. But if it is the truth, it is the truth.

For everyone to walk around surrounded by their own shiny truth-proof bubble, through which the real truth cannot pass, and only “their truth” is aloud to exist, is a danger to everyone. It is to look to every human culture that ever existed, that ever sought for the truth, and spit in its eye. It is to take the greatest quest humankind has ever embarked on and pack it up because people’s feelings might get hurt. It is the ultimate cowardly act. It is an injustice only a culture capable of deceiving itself to the stunning level we do now could accomplish.

Perhaps it is because the people who know the truth have often come off as bullies in history, or in commerce, or in the schoolyard, that has caused some to discount the truth. Perhaps their upbringing caused them to reject discomfort or fear to such a degree that they would be willing to leave truth behind as well, creating a world where these feelings are to be carefully avoided, even if it means leaving truth behind. This, though, is too high a price, and it ultimately leaves everyone in a world without right and wrong, good and evil, truth and deceit. And that is a fate far worse than learning to deal with hurt feelings.

The truth must prevail, the bubbles must be popped–this is deprogramming, job one. Wherever the beast called relativism shows its head it must be battled back. Truth must reclaim its rightful place in the public square. Yes, feelings might get hurt, but the current system where everything is right and everything is wrong is a breeding ground for proponents of a culture that can embrace any odd thing, believe any unreasonable thing, enforce any dishonest thing if it can only be seen as inclusive, tolerant and nice.

The truth must be restored, wherever it might lead, whatever it might expose. If we are to begin the task of deprogramming those living in this peculiar modern culture, and then point them toward the truth, reclaiming a place for truth in the public square is where we must start.